From Dauntless to Candor
by HeartlinesInTheSpectrum
Summary: Laylah was born Dauntless and wants to stay there, but the aptitude test tells her otherwise. She transfers to Candor, leaving what remains of her family behind. Once in Candor, she discovers the truth about herself- does she really belong anywhere?
1. Chapter 1

"Laylah Reeson."

I step into the aptitude test room, where my future will be decided. The silver, frightening chair stands in the center of the room surrounded by mirrors. "Take a seat, please." The man is of Abnegation, evident from his grey clothes and short hair-cut. "I'll explain the process to you-"

"No. Thank you. I know how this works." My brother told me everything two years ago, when he changed from Dauntless to Abnegation. I haven't seen him in two years. As I take a seat, he carries on. "Then allow me to inform you that each test is different per year. But I guess you know how the results work. Here's a syringe which-"He becomes distracted by the tattoo of a flame just below my ear, the Dauntless symbol. After the awkward pause, he proceeds. "Which will knock you out. I will place electrodes to your chest and you will do whatever you chose to do in the simulation. This is confidential, so it's your choice and your choice only." He moves the needle to the side of my neck, injecting the fluid until I begin to feel dizzy.

I'm in a meadow. A meadow which is green and beautiful, just like the ones I've seen in pictures of the Amity headquarters. A small girl begins to scream from a tree standing alone in the meadow. I run to her, hearing the screams getting louder and louder. When I reach the trunk of the tree, I look up but I can't see the girl. The screams carry on. "I'm coming!" I shout, as I climb the trees, desperate to end the screaming. I see the girl deep within the branches, tangled up and stuck. I crawl over to her and let her out. The girl smiles and then vanishes, then the tree is being cut down by a maniac with a chainsaw. His laugh is making me cringe. "Hey!" I shout. "Stop!" The man continues to saw down the tree, but raises his voice. "The money!" He says. "Hand me the money!" The money is in my left hand. "I have it! Stop and I'll hand it to you!" The man stops and I throw the money. "Where was this from?" He asks as he checks the sack of cash. "My left hand." I shout back.

"Anything else?" A gun appears at my side, and it's loaded. "Don't ignore me." He begins to use the chainsaw again. "No!" I scream "Wait, there's a gun." The man stares at me with the gun and reaches for it. What am I doing? I send a bullet through the man's skull; he was a threat to me. I climb down, careful about my footing and reach the ground, staring for anything else to occur. Nothing happens. "Anything?" I shout out, hearing my echo across the meadow. Then I black out and wake up in the chair. "My results?" I ask the Abnegation guy. "Candor." Candor? That would be my last option, as well as Abnegation.

"You climbed the tree, Dauntless, risking yourself, Abnegation, you freed the girl, Abnegation/Amity, You stopped the man, Amity, handed him the money you had, Candor, told him where you had it, Candor, told him you had a gun, Candor, shot him, Dauntless. That's 2 Dauntless, 2 Abnegation, 2 Amity and 3 Candor. You choose at the choosing ceremony tomorrow." I thank him as I leave the room.

Candor?


	2. Chapter 2

"The future belongs to those who know where they belong." Jeanine Matthews paces the stage in the opening ceremony with a fat grin across her face. "Here, you will choose." Her assistant walks onto the stage holding a blade before 5 bowls. Each bowl represents the factions. I sit with my Mum and Dad, watching as the Amity faction slit their palms and drop their blood. After Abnegation and Candor, Dauntless is next to choose. "You know what to do." Dad whispers. I smile as I walk past him, knowing I may never look into his eyes again. One by one, we stand on the stage and drop by blood. When the knife is handed to me, I slit my palm and drop my blood on the Candor glass, thinking it's for the best.

After the ceremony, I'm led out of the building with my fellow Candors. It takes all my willpower not to look into my parents eyes to recognize the disappointment in their faces. _I don't care_ I tell myself. I stick out like a sore thumb dressed in my long black dress and boots. I remove my black leather jacket due to the heat, ignoring my tattoos on my arms. I'm the only Dauntless transfer, so everyone stares in awe at the artwork on my arms. Ignoring the side comments and whispers about my arms, I enter the Candor headquarters. The main reception has marble flooring, glass walls and barely any decorations in eyesight. It's different to home. Jack Kang welcomes us to Candor. "Whether you were born here, or you're a newbie. Your initiation will start early tomorrow. Make your way to your dormitories." The previously-born Candors know where to go, so they take the lead. The dorms are small and there's roughly 6 rooms in the corridor. Each room holds 10 people. When I choose a random door to walk into, I sit on a bed in the far corner and look around. It's a mixture of everyone. The person in the bed next to me is Candor and the person on the other side is Amity. Rivals. "I'm Treyton." The Candor on the bed next to me extends his arm. His hair is as dark as his eyes, not leaving the best impression on me. His bow tie is just as dark, too. "Laylah." We shake hands. "The initiation process is easy. I'm related to Kang, so I hear the stuff that happens. You won't fail." "Let's hope." I laugh. I unpack my possessions into the trunks under my bed and follow Treyton to the cafeteria where we have dinner. It's hard to tell everyone apart in the traditional black and white clothing, but I find Treyton and sit next to him. "These are my friends; Willow, Oliver and Paul. All born Candor's." He introduces me to them and they smile, asking me questions about my arms and neck tattoos. I think I'm beginning to like it here.


	3. Chapter 3

When we wake up, we're rushed into the first initiation process. "Today, the initiation begins." Explains Jack Kang. "You will be put under truth serum, and your secrets will come out. There are no secrets here in Candor, so we get them out of the way in order to have a clean start." Many of the initiates are outraged. Why would you chose Candor, then? "Dauntless, you're up." Says Jack. "My name's Laylah." Wait, did he mean me? "Okay. _Laylah,_ come here." Great. I walk into the center of the room, where the Candor eye lies. Jack injects a serum into me which makes me feel weak and limp. "You're under the truth serum. Most embarrassing memory?" "I fell over in school and my skirt flew up." I hear laughter around the room. How did I just say that? "Happiest memory?" "Every day I had with my brother, before he died." The laughter stops. "Favorite color?" Is this necessary? "Blue." That's not very Dauntless of me. "Biggest regret?" "Not helping my brother when he needed me to." "And when was that?" "When I shot him in the stomach." The silence becomes piercing. I didn't just say that. Did I? When did I shoot him? This has to be some sort of hallucinogen, right? Kang finishes of the questions and gets Treyton to take me away from the center of the room and takes me back to the dormitory so I can get over the Serum. When I wake up, the dormitory is empty but one person on the bed next to me, watching me. Jack Kang. I don't remember anything about what I said when under the truth serum. "You shot your own brother?" _What?_ "What?" "You said it under the serum. Your biggest regret was not helping your brother when you shot him." "I've never shot anyone." "I don't think you quite understand. The truth serum can dig down beyond the memory serum. The memory serum was either used on you or you're lying. What you admit to when on the serum is the truth and nothing but the truth." I killed my own brother?


	4. Chapter 4

I used the truth serum. My parents used the truth serum on me without my consent, or did I? From what I learnt in school the truth serum erases everything apart from skills such as eating, walking, riding a bike, etc. Your name, date of birth, gone. Tomorrow is visiting day, I'll need to discuss things with them. Treyton gives me my clothes to wear for the rest of the initiation. It's a white dress with a black jumper and black shoes. The jumper is thin, so my tattoos show through. Treyton sighs when he sees them. "Didn't they hurt?" I just shrug my shoulders and go to the initiation training. Today we learn about body language and how to predict lies. We practice on each other, creating stories and guessing how we'd respond, testing if they were sticking to the plot. At the end of the day, I go with Treyton and Willow to the cafeteria to get dinner and talk about out day. "Kinda boring." Willow admits, Treyton nods in agreement. "I don't mind though. I'd prefer to handle a gun, apparently you can learn that in Dauntless." Treyton glances at me for certification and I nod. "Why would you want a gun? So you can shoot people like the Dauntless do?" Questions Willow. She realizes where she's gone wrong after registering the offended expression on my face. "No, no I didn't mean, I just meant, like, no, Laylah." Willow was in the room when I confessed to shooting my brother, even though I have no memory of doing so. "You meant exactly that." I eat the rest of my chicken and stand up. "Not all of us use guns, only the ones who can and have reasons. Like now, for example." I laugh inside at Willow's frightened expression and head back to the dormitory. I don't have a gun on me, so shooting her is out of the question. I lie on my bed, thinking about tomorrow- Visiting day.


	5. Chapter 5

They spot me as soon as I leave my dormitory. "Laylah! Here!" My mum calls from across the hallway. I turn to make sure they're not growling at me, ready to kill me for leaving their faction. "How's everything here?" Dad asks. I'm surprised he cares. "It's fine, I never knew I used the memory serum, though." Mum and dad go silent and stare at each other, then their feet. "That's why we didn't want you to choose Candor." Mum says. "You were four years old. Your brother was thirteen. He was training how to use a gun, and he brought it home with him." Mums eyes cloud over so dad puts his arm around her, then carries on with the story. "He left the gun in his room for practicing targets, and despite us telling him to keep it out of your reach, you somehow got to it." Dad sighs. "He asked for the gun back, but you demanded he'd teach you. So he did, which is a skill you haven't forgotten. Two years ago, when you were 14, your brother chose Abnegation." At least that's one truth. "He said he chose Abnegation to get away from people like you, and he spread rumors and created articles against you." "Why did he do that?" "He was victimized!" Weeps my mother. Dad carries on. "Using the gun, you shot him. We found you cradling him and crying so we immediately injected you with the memory serum so you forgot everything. We taught you everything again, and we told you a lie about your brothers' death." Thankfully, no one is around to hear this. My own parents have lied to me, for this long. Mum nudges dad and moves her head towards the parcel in his hands. "Oh, yes! How could I forget? Laylah, you're Dauntless. No matter what anyone says. You handle things the way they should be, so I'm helping you with that. You'll be surrounded by _these_ people, so here." He gives me the parcel and I unwrap it to find a gun. "Thank you." I say as I hug them. I know how this is going to help me.


	6. Chapter 6

As my parents leave the compound, Treyton approaches me. "I saw what your parents gave you." _Crap. _"What was it, then?" "A gun. Not any gun, a _dauntless_ gun. Are you mental?" "Watch what you call me, Treyton. I'm the one with a gun here after all!" As I laugh, Treyton's frown is more obvious. "We don't have guns in Candor." If I give it to him, I won't be able to defend myself. Willow comes skipping down the hallway. "Hey guys!" She smiles, her white teeth and beautiful smile projecting. Treyton smiles and says Hi, then he explains that he has 'work' to do. Now I'm left with Willow. I understand she didn't mean any offence by what she said, but I still took it personally. I turn to smile at her when I notice the death-glare she's giving me. "What's your problem?" She nudges me against a wall. "Laughing, flirting, and smiling with Treyton? Did you not go to high school?" She's getting closer and closer to me, her spit landing on my face. Ew. I push her back. "Get off me! We're not flirting. We're friends." I say, even though this doesn't have any effect on her what so ever. I feel the gun in my back pocket, Treyton left before he could get it off me. There's no one around. "I don't get people like you Dauntless. You think you're so-" She stops mid-sentence when I hold the gun out. Her grip on me is still firm. "That's right, copy your brother." She whispers as I pull the trigger, sending a bullet through her abdomen.


	7. Chapter 7

I run away from Willow. My head beating at the same rate as my heart, the gun feeling heavy in my hand. There's one bullet left. I exit the compounds and run towards a field in the darkness. I stop when I hear the sound of the alarms. _Run_. My legs are glued to the ground and I'm forced to watch as guards leave the building with torches and guns. The wind flows through my hair and sends shivers up my back. _I'm cold not scared_, I tell myself. The guards are getting closer when I gather up the courage to run further into the field and into the woods, a male voice calls me. "You!" I turn around to be blinded by a torch. "Stop there, you need to return!" My head automatically shakes itself. "No" I say "I can't" I run for the woods, surrounded by shouts directed at me and footsteps. When I reach the first tree, the first bullet is launched in my direction. It hits the tree next to me, sending flies and insects away. When I'm deep within the forest, I climb the thickest tree in sight and stay there, trying to ignore the alarms and shouts in the background. "I knew you'd be here." Treyton is out of breath from running. "I heard the shot, ran back around the corner and saw you running." Great. "I thought, if I had done this, where would I go?" He's resting against a tree opposite me. "Here, I guess." Is he not mad at me for shooting Willow? "I don't know what to do." I sob. "They'll kill me if I go back there!" I whisper loudly. Treyton smirks at me. "I know they would. But they won't" "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry!" Then I register what he said. "What?" "Sorry won't bring Willow back." He rises a gun out of his back pocket, aims it at me and pulls the trigger, firing at my thigh. "And you thought you could just _run_ away? Not care about her? You're wrong. You're Dauntless, not Candor. You don't belong here." He aimed the gun at my head, shaking his head. I'm about to scream when I hear the bang.


End file.
